"But this rest was owing not
so much to the conversion of Saul, as probably to the Jews being
engrossed with the emperor Caligula's attempt to have his own image
set up in the temple of Jerusalem [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities,
18.8.1, &c.]."

"Three years had passed since
he left the city, a proud, talented young Pharisee, with brilliant
worldly prospects, the honored agent of the Sanhedrim, commissioned
to stamp out Christianity at Damascus. He now returns a disciple of
him whom he sought to destroy, his bright worldly prospects all
forfeited, an outcast from his own nation, persecuted and hated. Why
this change? No explanation is possible, save that given in this
history and by himself."

"Saul seems to have been the
instigator of the persecution of the church, which began at the
death of Stephen in Jerusalem and worked outward from there. With
the conversion of Saul, persecution of the church did not stop, for
now some of the Hellenistic Jews were opposing his preaching (and no
doubt, the church at large as well). It was only with the exit of
Saul from the Holy Land, back to his native land (Tarsus), that
peace once again returned."

"The article argues that the name Tabitha (Acts
9:36), which means "gazelle," when read as a metaphor for a
proselyte in the Acts narrative, highlights the issue of boundaries
in some early Christian communities."

Recommended articles
from ATLAS, an online collection of religion and theology journals, are
linked below.
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